Gasgoo.com (Shanghai September 23) - Cumulative Chinese sales growth rates of 19 different imported automobile brands from January to August totaled 23 percent, Economic Observer News reported earlier this week, citing statistics from Sinomach Automobile. Sales growth rates fell from 36.6 percent reported at the beginning of the year, reaching their lowest point in July, when they totaled just 23.2 percent.
By comparision, the amount of vehicles in the market grew 24.8 percent over the first eight months of the year, with a total of 788,000 vehicles available. Sinomach Automobile Vice President Sun Yong attributes the increase in supply due to overly optimistic expectations on the part of foreign manufacturers, with a number of them forecasting Chinese sales growth rates of 40 percent or more for the year. Unfortunetly, the expanding inventory size has put a lot of pressure on dealerships. A high-level manager at one Beijing dealership complained that his business had to rely on manufacturer subsidies in order to make sales. Mr. Sun believes that decreasing growth rates is a sign that the import car market in China has entered a period of restructuring.
BMW remained the top selling import automobile brand in China over the eight month period, followed by Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen. The Münich-based manufacturer's import automobile sales in the country grew 23.7 percent. Meanwhile, VW and Jeep's sales more than doubled over the time frame, growing 118.9 percent and 182.8 percent, respectively.
In order to tackle excessive inventory levels, several manufacturers have implemented discounts and other promotional offers. However, sales growth rates have continued to fall. Beijing Yayuncun Automobile Market Deputy General Manager Yan Jinghui points out that decreasing prices have severely cut down on the typically high profits that imported automobile normally bring in.
SUVs remained the top selling import automobile type, with the BMW X Series, as well as several Mercedes-Benz and Jeep models performing strongly. As of August, SUV models constituted 57 percent of all import automobile sales.
